Increased crime puts burden on District Attorney

BANGOR, Maine (NEWS CENTER)--A significant hike in the amount of pharmacy robberies, stand offs and even homicides has put a strain on the work load District Attorneys through out Maine are receiving.

District Attorney for Penobscot and Piscataquis County, Christopher Almy, hasn't seen a year like he had in 2012 in a long time. In the City of Bangor alone, close to 5,000 cases were filed in Almy's records. "It's one case after another and you can hardly get done with one and you have to go to another one and it's difficult to keep up with," says Almy.

According to Almy the funding and staffing provided by the State of Maine hasn't adjusted to the increase in cases, meaning that in some cases the state doesn't have the time, manpower or money to fully prosecute a suspect. "Somebody getting six years in jail, we'll say well do we have enough time to do this case. Maybe we'll have to recommend only two years in jail or three years in jail which means we're giving away cases when we shouldn't be."

Almy has asked for more funding help from the county and plans on doing the same at the state level. His hope is that with that funding he will be able to hire more staff to better handle the increased work load.